PROUD-Public road urban driverless test: Architecture and results

Abstract

The presence of autonomous vehicles on public roads is becoming a reality. In the last 10 years, autonomous prototypes have been confined in controlled or isolated environments, but new traffic regulations for testing and direct automotive companies interests are moving autonomous vehicles tests on real roads. This paper presents a test on public urban roads and freeways that was held in Parma on July 12, 2013. This was the first test in open public urban roads with nobody behind the steering wheel: the vehicle had to cope with roundabouts, junctions, pedestrian crossings, freeway junctions, traffic lights, and regular traffic. The vehicle setup, the software architecture, and the route are here presented together with some results and possible future improvements.